


Growing Up as Told by A Scrapbook

by theroseredreaper



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Aizawa Shouta is best dad, Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead is Shinsou Hitoshi's Parent, Child of Aphrodite Shinsou Hitoshi, Child of Athena Midoriya Izuku, Dadzawa, M/M, Not Beta Read, Percy Jackson and the Olympians AU, Romance from Outside Perspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22941337
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theroseredreaper/pseuds/theroseredreaper
Summary: When Hitoshi discovered at age sixteen that he was a demi-god, he whole life changed completely from that point from that point forward. He went on a life-or-death quest, made lots of new friends, and made himself a home out of Camp Halfblood. His dad, on the other hand, also had his life changed the day he had to send his son away to Camp Halfblood for his own safety. And that first fateful summer, he took up scrapbooking as a hobby.This is the a tale of Hitoshi growing up and finding love, from the perspective of his dad and his scrapbook.
Relationships: Midoriya Izuku/Shinsou Hitoshi
Comments: 7
Kudos: 78





	Growing Up as Told by A Scrapbook

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Greek Mythology: Disaster Gays with Swords](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22394725) by [itsyaboimothman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsyaboimothman/pseuds/itsyaboimothman). 



> So I was scrolling the archive looking for a new ShinDeku fic to read, when I came across this fic by Dandington_and_the_Washingsons in which a tag was "Child of Aphrodite Shinsou (and Aizawa!)" and I was like :O YOOOOOOOOOOO that's cool like FUCK I gotta check this shit out!! And I read it and I positively loved it and was just full of inspiration for it! I was over the moon when they told me that I could write this!  
> I had like, over 20 different ideas for what the heck I should write; like, I was so excited over the concept of a Percy Jackson crossover with Child of Aphrodite Hitoshi, there are so many possibilities with that! In the end, when I put pen to paper, this was what ended up happening!  
> I hope that you end up liking this!  
> And make sure to read "Greek Mythology: Disaster Gays with Swords" by Dadington_and_the_Washingsons!!!!  
> Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22394725/chapters/53505673

Shouta Aizawa only knew a few constants in his life, and it helped him keep track of the days that went by ever since Hitoshi had been sent away to Camp Half Blood all those years ago at age sixteen. 

The first constant in his life was his best friend, Hizashi Yamada, who he met in highschool and then went to study abroad with in New York. When they left Japan to study abroad, they weren’t really expecting to stay, but they ended up liking it there, and Hizashi’s extended family with whom they were staying with welcomed them to stay as long as they wanted to with open arms. The study abroad classes were just supposed to be English language classes and some criminology electives, while Hizashi was studying music, and after that they were going to extend their study visas, maybe even apply for residency.

And then, one night while Shouta was at a bar, he met her. Of course, at the time, he had no idea who she was at all. He was a pretty starch skeptic in anything supernatural or mythical, on top of being Japanese, so the whole Greek gods thing? He never would’ve imagined it.

It wasn’t that long after that night that Hitoshi came along. He had been confused, scared, unsure; why hadn’t the girl ever told him? What was he supposed to do as a parent? Where would he even get the money to care for a child? What was he going to do about college??

Hizashi was his rock during the turmoil. It was awkward, at first - they both loved each other, but had been dancing around their feelings back then. He didn’t accuse him of anything, or get angry at him - well, they weren’t together at that time - and he didn’t kick him out for suddenly getting saddled with a kid out of nowhere. Well, kicking out someone in need wasn’t something that Hizashi would ever do, but Shouta had been so scared and confused at the time.

What Hizashi  _ did  _ do, though, was get angry for him. Get upset for him. And get help for him. They tracked down Hitoshi’s mother and they both got a crash course in Greek mythology and what that meant for Hitoshi’s life as a demi-god. They took turns caring for Hitoshi, so that Aizawa could wrap up enough of his degree to at least become an officer. They built a life around Hitoshi together and Hizashi never once blamed him for putting Hitoshi first.

“It’s okay that we can’t be together, Shouta. It’s enough to just know that you love me,” he had told him.

And Hizashi treated Hitoshi as though he was his own son. And Hizashi never dated anyone, either. He stayed single just like Shouta remained single.

The next constant in his life, was, of course, Hitoshi himself. While the first few months with a child was scary and full of uncertainty, confusion, and running from the occasional monster. They had some level of security with the fact that as a child of Aphrodite, Hitoshi was not as much interest to a monster as, say, a child of Athena or Ares, but they occasionally had to move, especially in the first years when Hitoshi began to charm speak and not even know it. They had their current brownstone thanks in part to a five year asking  **_Can we have this apartment, pretty please?_ ** Raising and caring for Hitoshi was a blessing that Shouta would never trade for anything else in the whole entire world. They had a little family together, him, Hitoshi, Hizashi, and all the stray cats he took in. It could be rough, sometimes, knowing that he couldn’t afford to send Hitoshi to a good school with good classes helping kids with disabilities, even with Hizashi offering to help pitch in money - there were a good few parent teacher conferences that Shouta stormed out from where the teachers always told him that Hitoshi was a problem child that was a bad influence on the other kids and that Hitoshi was mentally challenged because they didn’t accomodate for his dyslexia and ADHD - and knowing that New York was costly as a single parent, but he couldn’t move from New York in case Hitoshi needed the refuge of Camp Halfblood.

The third constant in his life was worry for Hitoshi. That some monster would find him and try to hurt him for something out of his control. That his teachers were giving him a hard time for his dyslexia or ADHD, or his classmates were harassing him, for once the glamour of being a child of Aphrodite wore off, they were quick to turn on him. Or that maybe he had accidentally used his charm speak again - though for ages twelve to fifteen he became relatively silent and that had  _ definitely  _ put some premature gray hairs on Shouta - and it had gotten him in trouble with someone and Hitoshi wouldn’t even know why. That his selfishness for wanting to keep being a family together, to keep Hitoshi by his side even though he should’ve sent him to Camp Halfblood the day he turned twelve and his blood as a demi-god would be easier for monsters to find would inevitably spell doom for Hitoshi and it would be all Shouta’s fault.

The day that Hitoshi, at sixteen, came home in a panic, demanding answers, and Iida following not long after, not even wearing his human guise, Shouta was sure that his selfishness had come back to get him and he was filled with a choking anxiety that if he didn’t get Hitoshi to Camp Halfblood, didn’t get him to safety, that Hitoshi would die and it would be  _ all his fault.  _ When the minotaur had got him, the one concern was  _ did Hitoshi make it past the tree line? Did he make it to safety?  _ He hadn’t even had the chance to be able to tell Hizashi about what was happening, about what happened to them or that they were leaving. 

That year was an adventure in the practice of waiting, waiting, and waiting, while balancing the will to not break and to not drown in the utter fear for the safety and well-being for his child.But in the end, Hitoshi came out victorious, a little wiser, a little older, and a little more grown into himself. And after that, there were new constants in his life.

Hitoshi would come home during the school year and go to Camp Halfblood every summer. During the school year, he studied hard, Hizashi his ever present tutor to help him through the assignments. He was studying to become an English teacher, doing his music less and less. They had dinner together, just the two of them during the weekdays, and then together with Hizashi on the weekends. And every Thursday would be a letter from a “friend” at Camp Halfblood would come in from someone that Shouta at first only knew as Izuku. Izuku, he knew, from the quest that Hitoshi took that first year that Hitoshi had gone to Camp Halfblood. Hitoshi always looked forward to the letters and Shouta always knew when the letters arrived from the instant joy that overtook Hitoshi whenever one arrived.

“We can’t use phones or the internet because monsters can track us,” Hitoshi explained to him, while he was watching his son painstakingly pen a letter slowly in his best handwriting, trying to get the words spelled correctly and legibly, “And Izuku is a year-round camper. It’s not safe for him to leave. So we keep in touch through the letters. He’s able to tell me how Tenya and my other friends are doing too.”

Shouta was pretty sure that Hitoshi looked forward to those letters for reasons more than that.

The next new constant was Izuku and Hitoshi always being side by side, just as Shouta and Hizashi were side by side. They both finished highschool and it had seemed at first that because they were demi-gods they wouldn’t be able to go to college like other teens, but through some change of fortune - Shouta is pretty sure that some whole other adventure went down that made this possible, but Hitoshi had a habit of withholding things from him to not worry him, a habit Hitoshi had yet to break - they were now going. They had applied together, moved there together, and are now rooming together. Shouta was pretty sure that if it weren’t for the fact that their interests in studies were different that Hitoshi would even be taking the same classes together. When Hitoshi sent Shouta mail to let him know how he was doing, the envelope had a letter from Izuku too, and the letters were always signed by both of them. When Hitoshi came home for visits, Izuku would come visit too. Shouta was pretty sure that they were together, but were just waiting for the right opportunity to tell him.

The last new constant was scrapbooking. He had never been much for art, but Hizashi and Hitoshi had given him a kit as a gift that first year that Hitoshi came home after his first summer at Camp Halfblood had ended, to help him catalogue his memories and have something to look at when he missing Hitoshi. And, whether he admitted it or not, it actually became therapeutic when days were particularly hard.

The first page was full of the obligatory photos of Hitoshi from infancy to the end of middle school. The second page was clippings from the sensational news that flooded the nation during Hitoshi’s first adventure, when the journalists made up every and any theory about what happened to the father and son whose car was totalled on Long Island with neither to be found anywhere near the crash site. This page was their little inside joke, and in the center of the page was a lovely photo of Hitoshi, Izuku, and Tenya posing together with grins, proudly displaying their camp bead necklaces, from their first summer together. The photo could capture the moment of their grins and laughs, some sort of amazing achievement from the genius invention of Mei Hatsume, a child of Hephaestus and friend of Izuku at Camp Halfblood.

The next pages were filled with photos of the summers that have passed. Hitoshi in a canoe race against Izuku, almost winning until the nyads of the lake sabotaged him and threw him overboard. Izuku wildly gesturing over an old map tacked to a cork while Hitoshi watched him with a love sick expression, Tenya in the background watching them with fond exasperation. Hitoshi and half the camp cheering on a fight between Izuku and Katsuki, another child of Athena, the photo after that being that of the campers making a run for it before Chiron had pulled the two brothers apart, giving them what Hitoshi called the “face of godly disappointment.” A quiet moment in which Izuku and Hitoshi were sitting on the dock, holding hands and leaning against each other, back to the camera. Mei and Tenya had snuck that photo. The photo after that were Hitoshi and Izuku caught in a half turn when they realized that they were being photographed, eyes wide with surprise and cheeks flushed with hot blushes of embarrassment. Then the photo of them and their friends proudly displaying the bead of that summer. 

The newer pages, thick with photos and embellishments, were some of Shouta’s favorites in the whole scrapbook. Because in these photos, Hitoshi was always happy, even if he wasn’t smiling. You could see in his eyes that he was happy with his life and where he was. And that was at Camp Halfblood, surrounded by others who knew just a little of what it was like to be him.

A photo of Hitoshi, Tenya, and Izuku covered in soot with their hair blown back, all of them caught in the unexpected explosion of Mei’s latest invention. Another photo of Hitoshi deuling a child of Ares who had goaded him for being a child of Aphrodite, in which a three set of photos, demonstrated how Hitoshi basically outclassed the kid in every way possible.

“Even after my quest and all that, children of Aphrodite generally don’t fight and don’t go on quests. They kinda see us as the weakest link, I guess. That bastard made fun of my siblings and I wasn’t going to let that slide,” Hitoshi had explained to him when Shouta had been going through the photos that he had wanted to add to his scrapbook. Shouta had to give him the obligatory parental lecture on being petty and starting fights just because you were provoked, but honestly Shouta was pretty proud of him and quite heavily approved, and he knew Hitoshi didn’t buy the bullshit lecture one bit.

There were some photos of Hitoshi practicing archery, face pink while Izuku directed him how to shoot with the arrows; photos of Hitoshi practicing his forms with the sword that Chiron had given him, photos of Hitoshi sparring with his friends, and some where Hitoshi taught his fellow Aphrodite siblings. There were movie nights and photos snuck during dinner, in which Izuku and Hitoshi were trying to sneak holding hands but they were too obvious about it. A series of photos that chronicled what Hitoshi referred to only as the “Great Prank War of Aphrodite and Hermes” in which the children of Aphrodite and the children of Hermes wreaked utter chaos and havoc pranking all the other campers until the children of Athena teamed up with the children of Ares to retaliate. It came to a head when the final prank that Hitoshi would only refer to as “the pink blast '' that left more than half of the camp cabins pink and filled with sticky goo that solidified and left many campers stuck in their cabins. One of Shouta’s favorite photos is Hitoshi being overdramatic just to see Izuku light up with a laugh while Izuku brought him food to pass from the half stuck window of the Aphrodite cabin, Hitoshi and half his siblings being some of the campers that had gotten stuck inside after “the pink blast.” The last few photos seemed to be exclusively photos that Mei, Tenya, and their other friends had snuck of Hitoshi and Izuku spending time together.

The two of them playfully slinging strawberries at each other while one of the camp counselors scolded them; Izuku playfully pushing Hitoshi into the lake for a laugh before Hitoshi got his revenge by pulling him in too; the two of them nestled in a blanket together on the porch of Aphrodite cabin together, having fallen asleep, Hitoshi’s siblings cooing over them from the window; Izuku watching Hitoshi like he hung the stars in the sky while Hitoshi got back Izuku’s treasured cap from Katsuki; the two of them in the infirmary, giving the camera a tired a thumbs-up, both bandaged and bruised up after coming back from that summer’s quest; Tenya excitedly pointing to Hitoshi and Izuku exchanging what they adamantly said were friendship rings and nothing more in the distance; and then there was the photo of them posing and displaying that summer’s bead, eyes only for each other. 

These were all the constants in Shouta’s life and he would always feel blessed that they were his. Smoothing down the photo of Izuku and Hitoshi watching each other while displaying their bead necklaces, Shouta looked up to see the door jangling as Hitoshi jostled with the keys to get it open. He couldn’t help but hold back a laugh, fairly sure that Hitoshi meant for this visit to be a surprise if it weren’t for the old door hinges, if Hitoshi’s soft cursing was any indication. The door creaked open slowly, Hitoshi peeking in and looking around for him, grinning when he spotted Shouta sitting at the coffee table with the scrapbook and his scrapbook kit.

Hitoshi was now a strong, confident young man, nothing like that little scared sixteen year old that had been sent to Camp Halfblood without a clue of what was going to happen to him all those years ago. Shouta felt blessed anew.

“Hey Dad!,” Hitoshi happily greeted with a grin, coming in, pulling in Izuku behind him by the hand.

“Morning, Mr. Aizawa,” Izuku greeted too, just as happy to see him as Hitoshi was.

There were new rings on their fingers, replacing their old “friendship” rings. Shouta is pretty sure that they’re engagement rings.

“Nice to see the both of you,” he greeted himself, standing up and most definitely not rushing over to envelope the both of them in a big ol’ hug, “To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?”

“Can’t I just see my old man?” Hitoshi laughed, returning the hug with just as much gusto.

“We were on our way to Camp Halfblood and thought it would be nice to drop in for a visit,” Izuku told him, looking he was about to explode with excitement over something that he was still withholding from him.

“A visit is nice anytime, but it seems like Izuku here is dying to tell me something,” Shouta teased, making an obvious point of glancing at the matching rings they wore. Izuku flushed pink, sure he had done a better job of hiding all his excitement, while Hitoshi just grinned.

“We sure did, but we wanted to tell you about it in person.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

Shouta couldn’t help teasing them, it was his job as a dad to tease and cajole his kids no matter how old they were.

“We’re getting married!” Izuku all but shouted, presenting the invitation to Shouta with a flourish that almost gave them all whiplash.

Shouta grinned, accepting the invitation happily, crushing them in another hug, “Congrats! I was wondering when you were gonna get around to telling me when you two were together!”

The two young men flushed with embarrassment and stammered up excuses, sure they had told him at some point,  _ surely,  _ while Shouta just heartily laughed.

After he had his fill of teasing them, they all sat around the dining table and pushed the scrap book to the side for snacks, and Izuku and Hitoshi told him about how it had all happened.

“We were getting ready to leave Camp Halfblood, saying goodbye, when Izuku told me out of nowhere, ‘Hitoshi, we need to talk. Meet me at the dock.’ I was scared shitless, dad, I was like ‘fuck what did I do??’ you know?”

“I didn’t mean to make you so nervous!” Izuku interjected, hiding behind his hands, “And I wanted to meet at the dock cuz we had our first kiss there…”

Hitoshi just grinned cheekily, “So I went over, prepared to apologize for like, literally anything, ready to beg for Izuku to not break up with me, when he gets down on one knee and starts rambling some poetry, but he can hardly get the words straight. I was blanking out with shock!”

“Did you  _ have  _ to tell him about the poetry??”

Shouta chuckled as Hitoshi continued the story, “And then he pulled out the ring and I was ‘Oh SHIT it’s happening, it’s happening!’ I was so surprised that I just stood there staring while poor Izuku was starting to panic.”

“I was terrified that I hadn’t timed it right, that I had been misreading our relationship...He just stood there, gawking! I was ready to just run away and never leave home again when all of a sudden he started cry-laughing - “

“Oh come on, I wasn’t cry-laughing - “

“You so were - he got down on one knee himself and pulled out his own ring!”

Shouta smiled for what felt like the hundredth time that day; he might’ve ‘awed’ but he felt he had teased the two of them enough already.

“I had just picked up the ring that morning, I had asked Mei to make it for me, and I was going to propose to Izuku that night. But he one-upped me.”

“How was I supposed to know, Toshi?” Izuku teased, messing with Hitoshi’s hair.

Ah, Shouta really was blessed, and there really was nothing more he could ask for. Hitoshi had found happiness and his place in life; he grew up to be a wonderful young man and Shouta could have never asked for a better son. His son was blessed with a partner who understood him and loved him, too. Shouta’s job was fulfilling and his night classes to become a teacher were going good, too. And after their most recent talk, since Hitoshi was now an adult and living on his own, Hizashi agreed to give them a try. Their first date was on Friday.

“Oh, is that the time already? Sorry, pops, but we gotta get going to the camp,” Hitoshi apologized as he noticed the time on the old clock in the kitchen, getting up to give Shouta another hug.

“It’s fine, any visit is a good visit, even when they’re short,” Shouta reassured, pulling Izuku into the hug too.

After a few more goodbyes, Shouta watched the two of them off, waving to them as they left in their little vintage car that Mei had fixed up for them. Once they were out of his sight, Shouta went in with a happy sigh, sitting with his scrapbook again. Opening the letter of the wedding invitation, he was surprised by a series of photos falling out of the envelope. They were a tell by tell shots of the double proposal on the dock, the final photo being Hitoshi and Izuku kissing, holding hands, their new rings on display to the camera.

Shouta spent the afternoon adding these new photos to the scrapbook with a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> It came out rather sappy but like I was a sappy mood, yknow? I put my pen down at like 8:30 this morning and did not stop writing until like 11:30, I was like "I gotta get it all out in one-go!"  
> I dunno what anyone was expecting out of this (I mean out of all the ideas I had, I honestly was expecting myself to write something more along the lines of action and adventure and life at Camp Halfblood) but I am quite happy with how it came out in the end.  
> I hope you liked the fic!


End file.
